Somewhere in the Background
by Zeldagirl111
Summary: They grew up together, him and her.  They never really saw each other, they lived in the same town and every month or so maybe they'd notice each others presence enough to say hey.  But that was it.  Until one fateful day...
1. Prologue

_Okay guys, so this is kinda sorta my first BIG story, I've only ever posted one shots. This prologue isn't to long, but I'm going to be updating REALLY fast. So please do enjoy my story and PLEASE do tell me what you think!_

**Somewhere in the Background**

Prologue

They grew up together, him and her. They never really saw each other, they lived in the same town, and every month or so maybe they'd notice the others presence enough to say hey. But that was it.

She moved here with her parents when she was six. But fifteen years later at twenty one, her parents had left her with the farm and left to live in the city. Ever since she was two, she dreamt of being a famous singer. But first, she was going to go to a big music college, and that cost money. She was determined to earn every penny of it by farming. Also part of her dream was being married to the most wonderful man in the world and having six kids. The singing part of her plan was working out just great, the wonderful man part, well…not so much.

He had lived here all twenty years of his life. His parents left him with his grandfather when he was 5, he didn't know where they were. He loved blacksmithing, but he wasn't very good at it. He tried really hard but his grandfather would only yell at him whenever it wasn't perfect, which was all the time. Every time he tried, it just seemed hopeless, but he still hoped and dreamed that one day he would do it right.

Both of them had been going through an awfully long period of boredom. All they could do was pray, pray that something would happen, something that would change their lives forever. Something was coming, they both knew it, they just weren't quite sure what it was. All the while, there was something, no, someone they were starting to notice that they had never really seen, somewhere in the background.

_That's all I got for now guys, as I said, I'll be updating fast. I'm SUPER open to suggestions, being my first big story and all, (and my first romance, YIKES!) So as this progresses, if you guys have ANY ideas I'm ready to hear them. Just know that I'm __G-RATED.__ No graphic sex scenes EVER. Plus I'm not crazy about promoting pre-marital sex either. Other than that I would LOVE to hear from people more experienced than me! I already have the first 4 chapters all written out, so expect at least that much in the next couple days._


	2. Chapter 1: Claire's Screwed Up Love Life

**Somewhere in the Background**

Chapter One: Claire's Sad Love Life

"Hey Ann!" Ann was Claire's best friend in Mineral Town, along with Popuri of course. They were inseparable, maybe it was sort of passed on, their parents were the best of friends. But it was something else to. These girls had a very cute, yet very annoying quality. They were in no rush whatsoever to grow up. They lived their lives fantasizing about what they wanted, about prince charmings and castles far away. This kept them together. This longing for something extraordinary to happen, and this fear of growing up they all shared.

"Hey Claire!"

"How are you today?"

"Well gee, I dunno, how are YOU today?"

"Um…no. I DEFINITELY asked you first."

They continued in this childlike manner for a few minutes. I suppose the childishness of these ladies is now somewhat apparent, it was almost disturbing sometimes.

"Well Claire, how's the whole thing with Kai going?"

"Ugh, I gave up on that dofus. He's so stuck on Mary it's crazy. Of course we all know the demon woman doesn't feel the same!" In fact the whole town knew, heck, Kai himself had heard. Though he wouldn't believe it unless he heard it from Mary herself. But Mary had an image to keep up, she wasn't going to risk her nice girl image and break Kai's heart. "He's just going to go crazy over her, not realizing he's doing the same thing to me that she's doing to him! I'm not dealing with that mess anymore!"

"Gosh you poor thing. First you get rejected by the Doctor, and now this. You'll find someone, I know you will!"

"I hope so, but they're aren't many eligible young men left. Anyway, what's going on with you and Cliff?"

"Hehe, well…." All she could do was blush and giggle. Ann and Cliff had been together since they were seven. It was quite adorable actually, and Claire could proudly say that she was the one who set them up.

"So you guys are both twenty aren't you? PLEASE tell me you've discussed marriage! Or is that silly head Cliffy to shy to even bring it up?"

"That's pretty much it. I've tried to bring it up, but…well…..you know cliff. He freaks out and changes the subject every time. At this rate I'm just gonna go propose myself!"

"Haha, you would. We all know who the man in that relationship is!"

"I do hope your not referring to me, because if you are, when I'm done with you, no man will ever want you. I assure you."

"Oh dear….um…..message received. I was definitely referring to Cliff."

"That's what I thought you silly girl, You know, I think you're the only one who thinks your funny."

"No, your always laughing at me!"

"Of course, when people miss the door and bump into the wall, it's REALLY hard not to laugh."

"That definitely only happened once!"

"Haha, whatever!"

They were both cracking up, continuing to spout nonsense about Ann acting like a guy and Claire being a ditz, but Ann was right about one thing. Claire would find someone, and sooner than she thought.


	3. Chapter 2: The Fateful Encounter

**Somewhere in the Background**

Chapter Two: The Fateful Encounter

"HOLY FREAKING CRAP GRAMPS!" The angry blacksmith, or Gray, was ticked. VERY ticked.

"Don't you dare EVER talk to me like that! Now I told you to redo this necklace for a reason, and I assure you that reason was NOT so I could hear you screaming in my ear." Sabaira was always making his grandson redo things, he really does want him to get better, but Gray thinks he just likes making him suffer.

"Well I don't know what that reason could possibly be other than that, because after the fifth time you MUST know I'm pretty freaking ticked!"

"FINE! Scream as much as you want! But your going to do it outside, NOT in here where I have to listen to you."

Gray stormed out of there as fast as he could. He wasn't going to take this, he most certainly didn't deserve it! That's what he thought anyway. But his intense anger was suddenly interrupted by loud laughter, and it was coming from two certain girls, girls going to meet their dear friend Popuri. But Gray couldn't take his eyes off Claire for two reasons. She was actually really pretty, this wasn't the first time he noticed her, just the first time it really hit him. The second reason was he was trying to understand how such loud and obnoxious laughter was coming from such a pretty young lady, and such a small one too. Sure Ann's laugh was loud, but she had NOTHING on Claire.

Hmmmm, such an odd thing to notice after 15 years of her being here…

Then for the first time in a long time , and the first time either of them really took notice, Claire turned and looked at him and said…

"OH! HEY!"

Probably one of the most obnoxious things he'd ever heard, but oddly…..cute?

"Um….hey."

Now to this day Claire isn't sure what made her say anything more, maybe it was her natural curiosity about the angry look in his eye, or maybe it was a push of fate, but whatever it was, she pressed on.

"WHAT'S UP?"

"Do you really need to yell everything?"

"Oh….um….SORRY! But you still didn't answer my question. I'm WAITING!"

Gosh. This girl was SO freaking loud, at least it was cheery, but still horribly obnoxious.

"Well, nothing really. I'm actually feeling kind of awful."

"Um, Claire?" Ann was getting impatient.

"You go ahead and get Popuri Ann, I'll be right there."

"MM'KAY!" So Ann ran across the road to the poultry farm, leaving Claire with Gray.

"Well why are you feeling awful? I don't know you so well…..BUT, I'm here to listen!" Gray couldn't take his eyes off that smile, he knew she was just being nice, and yet…..her smile made him feel kind of…..peaceful. Like maybe someone in the world actually cared.

"Well I had a fight with Gramps again, I just can't seem to get the hang of blacksmithing. I'm really trying, but it's so hard and all he can do is yell when I screw up."

"Well your still learning! It's called training you know? So you just gotta keep on, you know, training! You'll be great someday, but even the great people weren't all that great when they started!" Well that just made Gray's day. Her couldn't believe a girl he had pretty much just met said that to him. Where had this girl been all his life? Beneath all the obnoxious laughter and childish personality was a perfectly stunning person.

"Well, thanks! That actually made me feel a whole lot better."

"That's great! You know, it's a real gosh darn shame I've never talked to you before! We're gonna hang out sometime! I'LL SEEYA!"

Ah, there's the yelling again. But while his ears were recovering, Gray had a very interesting thought.

Being with a girl that sweet would even make the yelling worthwhile…HEY! What the heck are you thinking? You JUST met this girl…well…technically you've known her for years, but still! Besides, your pretty much with Mary anyway, or at least Mary seems to think so…

And that was that. Sure he wasn't absolutely crazy about the librarian, but Mary was sure crazy about him. Gray wasn't really good at dealing with all this relationship stuff, so he never thought much of it. Besides, he couldn't hurt Mary! Not even for this girl….right?


	4. Chapter 3: The Request

_Not gonna lie….this is the part I dreaded writing. The funny chapter. I knew it was coming, and I knew I should write one. Let me tell you guys something, I'm NOT a very funny person. When I wrote it, I thought I was trying to hard, "That's not funny!" I thought. But I thought about it all day, and I was giggling to myself thinking about it and I was like, what the heck. So this chapter is kind of my baby, I proved to myself I could do what I thought I most certainly could not. So I'm proud of it. I really do hope you like it too! _

**Somewhere In the Background**

Chapter 3: The Request

"Gray! This isn't even close to what I asked for! Do it again!"

Sabaira was screaming at him all day, but Gray held on to what Claire told him, more than he would have liked to admit. So he held his tongue and tried harder. But still, nothing seemed to be coming from it. Suddenly he heard laughter, obnoxious laughter. That laugh could only have some from one person. Three women came bursting through the door, Claire, Popuri, and Ann.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Claire's laugh of course, as loud as ever. She placed a horribly mangled watering can, a dented hammer, and a broken fishing pole on Sabaira's desk.

"Oh Claire, hush and tell them just what it is you did!" Popuri seemed horribly ticked, I shockingly couldn't wait to hear this story.

"Well…hehe….I was…um….BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Oh dear, just what was it she did?

Then Ann decided to save her friend who obviously couldn't talk.

"You see, Claire despises this one chicken of Popuris, she angers easily and Claire, well Claire likes pranks. This particular chicken has a horrible fear of water. Popuri brought it with her to Claire's farm like she always does because the stupid thing will miss her or something….anyway. We were just hanging around having a….well…..a dirt fight."

"Um…a dirt fight? Don't May and Stu have those? What were three grown women doing having a….?"

"ANYWAY. We were running around and Claire trips. Popuri of course, just had to make a joke about how Claire's a ditz. Which would have been alright had she stopped at the first one. Well Claire was getting madder and madder and she turned and threw dirt at Popuri's precious chicken knowing it would tick her off."

"MY BABY! SHE THREW DIRT ON MY BABY!"

"THAT'S NO BABY, THAT THING IS A FREAKING MONSTER! YOU WANNA SEE THE SCAR THAT STUPID THING GAVE ME? Though…hehe…..I couldn't agree more with the your baby thing, you two look just alike."

"I'M GONNA GET YOU! Tell them the rest, that's not all she did, everyone must know what a little jerk face she is!" Popuri then proceeded to chase Claire outside. I started to follow them, but Ann stopped me.

"This is a normal occurrence. Let them go." It was obvious where this was going, looking at the mangled tools on the desk, so I could have stopped her there. But I was quite curious as to how this all happened, and Ann seemed quite determined to make it to the end of the story. "Anyway. So Popuri got horribly angry, which Claire was all giddy about after Popuri's jokes. So Claire says something about how sorry she is and how she'll clean her up. Now Claire knows this chickens fear of water very well, so she takes out her watering can. Now this is where things start getting crazy. She starts chasing the chicken around with that thing! Then Popuri, fuming with anger, tries to stop her. 'CLAIRE! I'm taking her home for a bath!' she says, and then Claire says 'Bath? Oh, hehe, I'll give her a bath alright.' So she picks up the thing and well…you know how Claire has that river by her farm?"

"She didn't." This girl was insane.

"She did. She throws the thing in the river. Popuri then freaks out because she can't swim to save her life, don't tell her I told you that by the way, and grabs Claire's fishing pole. So Popuris trying to fish out her chicken while Claire is trying to wrestle it out of her hands while laughing hysterically. Popuri gets the chicken, takes Claire's hammer, smashes the watering can, throws the hammer against Claire's house, and well…here we, or now just I, are."

So now I'm just standing there with my mouth hanging wide open, Gramps has locked himself in his room and is laughing like an idiot (which I would go do later because this was TO funny) and to top it all off, Claire suddenly walks in with a triumphant grin on her face.

Ann is, of course, wondering where her other friend is.

"Um…Clairy?"

"YEEES?" Still with that adorable…um…triumphant grin,

"Where exactly is Popuri? I know she didn't just give up, and you don't look injured so…..?"

"Well, she just might be…um….locked up somewhere."

Oh dear, Ann didn't look surprised at all.

"Oh well, I'll find her later" So Ann just smiled and left, probably to go save Popuri.

"Um, so I'm guessing you want Gramps to fix these?"

"Nope."

Claire was a truly perplexing person.

"Then….why are they here exactly?"

"They're here because YOUR going to fix them!"

"Um….Claire…I REALLY can't….!"

"HUSH! This is part of your training! I don't care how long it takes, but I'm going to get these back in proper farm work condition and YOU are going to do it! I believe in you, so don't screw up ok?"

'_I believe in you, so don't screw up ok?' _ Probably the most inspirational words I've ever heard. I was going to do it, and I was gonna do it right. Let's face it, no, I really don't know her all that well, but that smile makes me believe I can do it, and I will.

"If you insist Claire, I've got it!"

"You've got this Gray! BYE!" Then she gave me a big toothy grin and left. I must say, I was a little sad to see her go.


	5. Chapter 4: The Obstruction

**Somewhere In the Background**

Chapter 4: The Obstruction

I had just started work on Claire's tools when I heard a familiar voice.

"Why hello Gray, isn't this a wonderful day?" Mary just popped in to say hello. Gray didn't realize it, but his smile faded.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"What are you working on?"

"Oh, these are some tools that Claire brought in for me to work on." The smile popped right back on his face as he thought of Claire. He didn't realize it at all, but Mary sure did.

"I thought you didn't repair tools yet, aren't you just in training?"

"What, don't think I can handle it?" Gray was starting to get ticked.

"Oh, of course you can!" It's just unusual is all. Is there some special reason? After all, Claire is such a silly girl, I can only imagine what Claire did to bang up her tools this bad."

"Hey! Be nice to Claire! Sure she's a little silly, and she can be kind of obnoxious, but she can be really sweet!"

"Why of course! I didn't mean it to sound so bad. But, oh dear….I must be going. Bye Gray."

She didn't like this one bit. Mary knew Gray wasn't nuts about her, she certainly wasn't stupid. But she was working on it, and now this girl was going to ruin it!

_Okay, so my sweet little shy girl act won't hold up much longer, and surely Gray has started to see that!_

Nobody could be to hard on her, it most certainly didn't start as an act. But she soon realized only the cold calculating people get by in this world, her mother taught her that. Now it was the perfect act. She would keep Gray, and squish that stupid, childish little blonde, and she thought she might know just how to do it. Her dear friend Karen was already ticked at Claire taking her place at the music festival. Karen ALWAYS sang. But this year, Claire was asked to sing, and Karen didn't like it one bit. That's how Mary would get her, and Karen was going to help.

Back at the blacksmiths Sabaira was apparently finished with his little chuckle break from Claire's visit, so he stepped out of his room.

"So you accepted her request did you, huh? How cute!" This guy was making me mad.

"Oh hush, we're just friends! Besides…I've got Mary, I guess."

"See! Even you don't like the sound of that! I can tell that Claire is a very sweet young woman. But Mary seems so fake, just like her mother. When you're my age, you can just tell."

"Whatever Gramps, just let me work on this."

"Sure, it'll be good for you, having a job like this. But remember what I said boy."

"Yeah…I'll remember the mutterings of an old geezer."

"WHAT?"

"Um…it's nothing."

"That's what I thought you said. Now back to work!"

_Oh! We're gonna have some drama now. This is gonna be where Claire's childhood dream of singing comes in, but just what does Mary have planned? I TOTALLY know, I know EXACTLY where I'm going with this! PLEASE review and tell me if you like it, or what I can work on!_


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